Related:<p><i>Entire Annapurna Game Team Resigns</i><p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41526074">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41526074</a><p><i>Entire staff of game publisher Annapurna Interactive has reportedly resigned</i><p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41528266">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41528266</a>
For reference, Annapurna Interactive are not a mainstream publisher churning out franchise type games, but tend to publish unique games, some of them considered classics:<p>- Outer Wilds<p>- Stray<p>- Lorelei and the laser eyes<p>- Cocoon<p>- Neon White<p>...and others. <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/annapurnainteractive" rel="nofollow">https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/annapurnainteractiv...</a><p>This is a real shame for anyone who cares about really distinctive, original games.
In gamedev, the only thing that matters, once you have a good product is how to market it. Without exposure your project is dead, no matter the quality of it.<p>Who will talk/write about it and for how much? Yters have steep pricing, and they usually don't give a F about your project.<p>That's why Steam and other similar platforms are a trap. And yet, people protect/love them, like it's the 8th wonder of the world.
"You need to think of [Megan] Ellison the way you think of a lawnmower. You don't anthropomorphize your lawnmower, the lawnmower just mows the lawn, you stick your hand in there and it'll chop it off, the end. You don't think 'oh, the lawnmower hates me' -- lawnmower doesn't give a shit about you, lawnmower can't hate you. Don't anthropomorphize the lawnmower. Don't fall into that trap about [Annapurna]." -- Bryan Cantrill, on the sins of the father, heavily editorialized.<p><a href="https://youtu.be/-zRN7XLCRhc?t=38m24s" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/-zRN7XLCRhc?t=38m24s</a>
There is more content being produced than there are eyeballs and time to consume it all.<p>How does such an industry survive? In a very round about manner that has nothing to do with what they say they do.<p>General rule in life - Don't focus on the drama a fucked up environment produces.